〈 Episode 67 〉The East Targets the West 13

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Her behavior was rough. No one I'd ever met had ever approached me in this way before, not even the Bastards, who'd been rough with their fistfights, but this was the first time she'd ever acted so...courtingly, and I couldn't offer any resistance but to be crushed beneath her.

"No."

She lowers her head slowly, her eyes fixed on mine. Her red hair is fiery and wrapped around me, and I can smell her hot sage. It's a passionate, uplifting feeling. Her scent, with its ambition and a beauty and dignity that prevents it from being called greed, seemed to be trying to sober me up.

"In the West," she said, "you hear stories about making a night with a man you like into a memory."

The East often looked down on the women of the West, calling them wimps, but the books they wrote were the same kind of romantic tales that were popular in the East. Love and passion were alive and well, and men dueled over women, and women avenged their betrayers. It was said that the West was full of romance.

"I've heard it said that the West is full of love."

I'm inclined to agree with her, for now.

"But I've also heard that the West is also home to people who are sensitive to the betrayal of love."

"I'm glad you seem to know the West so well."

Even nobles, their love was always a dream. I calmly take Serghen's hand as he climbs on top of me.

"I just don't want to be the male villain in a tragedy of betrayal."

The avenging male in those stories was almost always stabbed to death by the woman who betrayed him...

"Do you know what they say in the West, that you don't have the right to hook up with a man or a woman?"

"I don't know."

No matter how interested you are in knowledge, you can't possibly know every little detail of Western culture.

"What it means to a man who seeks a mate of interest is, I will not take revenge if you and the man in question join forces."

Sergen's interpretation of Elisha's words is that they can be taken to mean, "I don't care what you do.

"Did Elisha really mean it that way?

First of all, if Elisha, a Libra of Condemnation from the Sirtus estate in the West, knew the culture of the West and said such a thing... I really felt that Elisha felt betrayed.

'Can't you feel betrayed.'

I had a calm conversation with her and told her that I had no choice but to go to Noel, and she understood. Theoretically.

"I was the one who betrayed her in the first place.

It occurred to me that it might have been me who told her that I had no cause to bind her, and she understood that, and if she had pledged to support me nonetheless... I could see why she had told Sergen that he could touch her.

'I suppose that means she understands what kind of woman you are.

Serghen is a good deal. Her involvement in the Sirtus estate might speed up my revenge on Million and my approach to Noelle. Speaking of having everything at my disposal, Sergen could be my sudden stroke of luck.

"Why?

Why was she attracted to me? What was it about her that made me fall in love with her, when most men don't even bat an eye at her?

"I don't understand you, Sergen."

"Since I'm in a position to take you, I'll have to convince you first."

She was trying to tell me her story to turn my rejection into a yes or neutral. To be honest, I'm a normal person with a normal outlook on relationships and a dream of settling down and living happily ever after with someone. Gina wonders if Sergen's excuse will work.

"You're the first person who's ever understood me."

She slowly flips her hair back on the side of her face.

"Why...?"

"Something you said must have struck a chord with me, either when you and I were standing in the fire, or the other day at Sirtus' Hermitage."

"What did I say?"

"What did you say to get me to trust you and then betray me in reverse?"

I remembered my resolve.

[Insert me here].

What I had said, ready to give up my life.

"I was really going to stab you. I was going to cut off at least one of your hands."

"...."

A slightly creepy story.

[Question for Sergen. Do you ever trust anyone completely?]

I pointed the Middle Sword at her throat and recited a searing line. I realize now that the change in her eyes was not due to her affirmation of my words.

"You have a crush on me?

I realized that her eyes had changed, not because she affirmed my words, but because she recognized me as a man, and not as a favor to the weak. I followed her to the slaughterhouse and slayed the hermits who sought her life.

'No wonder you fell for what I said at the risk of my neck.

Strange squinships, what if she took a great liking to me after all that talk of being a trustworthy object?

'Oh no.'

I had developed a pretty big bad blind spot. She trusted me, and I saved her by grabbing the hermitage and flying her out of the sweep.

'Saved her from the explosives.

She would have trusted me then, and when the fire burned...

[No, I shuddered and could barely hold my sword properly, a not-so-fond memory of a rookie soldier who died in my place].

A story she told as she stood at the fireburn. She was confiding in someone she trusted and liked.

'I didn't realize at the time that...'

He comforted her, feeling obligated to help her.

["I remember camping out and crying myself to sleep, vowing never again to lose men in vain."]

I was stirred by this story, and I comforted her as if I were embracing her, with a story from the first time I met her.

["I learned something new from what you said to me when I first met you, Sergen.]

[I realized something new about what you told me when I first met you, Sergen: that if an orc doesn't harm us, they're alien, and if a human tries to harm us, they're bandits and monsters.]

[I realize that I shouldn't be saying this to the Count's young lady, but... most things must be done by ourselves, unless we are gods, right?]

[You should do it yourself, but I'm sure you'll disagree with me... If there's an unfortunate injustice among the people of the estate, then you can come forward and discuss justice. Even if a man has been wronged and has become a bandit, he harms others who are not harmed by his banditry. Wouldn't that make them no different from the monsters you mentioned?]

I never thought of them as task mentions. But if they made her trust me completely and think that I was a man she could have a one-night stand with in the West, I...

"At least I didn't know enough about western culture to make a mistake.

I realized that my anger was caused by my belief that Sergen would not touch me because there was Elisha beyond the West and beyond the East, and Sergen politely asked Elisha if he could touch me, and Elisha gave the self-deprecating answer that if he did, I would not take revenge, that he was not worthy. So Sergen felt free to touch me.

"Now answer me well. Western women have a nasty back end."

But not just any western woman, but the young lady of the Sirtus estate, and if I had her back...I'd have a million revenges, and I'd be unable to do anything with her behind me.

"Even if Elisha did say that, I'm pretty sure I can't do that to her, right?"

"Tyr, you don't know anything about the West. I thought you knew a little."

She undoes the hook of her bra at the small of her back.

"Usually when he says no to touching him, he says he'll be fine, rather than something like he doesn't deserve it. He's okay with it because it's like a tent to cover his heart. You want to touch him, touch him, I'm not going to let you."

I rolled my eyes hastily.

"I see. What do you mean, I don't deserve it?"

"It means that touching me won't break our relationship, which is, in a way, a form of hospitality."

"Hospitality?

Why hospitality? I ponder.

"What if...what if I have a relationship with Sergen, and there is hope that he will eventually give up Noelle?

I wonder if she's made that assumption from watching me look at Noelle blindly, even after I've slept with her. Or...does it mean that Serghen will also be someone who will have grief to share when I go to Noel?

"I don't know.

The woman's mind was a mystery, one that no one could decipher, even with her right in front of them. War would be easier.

"I apologize for coming out like this, in such an oppressive environment, as your superior. But I am a woman, and you are a comfort to me. It's natural for me to be greedy."

She slowly began to unhook my pants, then unbuttoned my shirt one by one.

"I see you're also a bit of a horny one, huh?"

It was the first time I'd ever heard such a compliment. I guess it's different in the West, where lean muscles are popular...and in the East, where fat is a virtue.

"I have no intention of redeeming you after one night. Just think of us as a passing wind."

The open-mindedness of the West was hard to follow. Slowly, her hand moves to my bottom.

"..."

"Don't think of me as a pervert, I'd be very sad to hear that from the object of my passion."

My options were limited to the essentials.

"Tell me you love me."

"..."

"You're welcome to lie. Just give me this day."

She settles on top of me. I melt into the scent of her hot sage, and I whisper for her, for this terrible passion.

"I love you."

Her arms tighten around me, and her mouth meets mine. Her beauty is enough to melt my heart, and her passion burns hotly as she pulls down my underwear, then her own panties.

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